June-^, 1875J 



NATURE 



85 



OUR BOOK SHELF 

 Ifs/i^es of the Molten Glebe. By W. L. Green, Minister 



of Foreign Affairs to the King of the Sandwich Islands. 



(Stanford and Co., 1875.) 

 It is a pity that books of this sort are published, as they 

 can do no good. It is one of that class which attempts 

 to account for the general features of the earth by some 

 extravagant hypothesis, for the proof of which some 

 superficial obsei-vations of well-known facts and some 

 show of quotations from well-known writers are all that 

 is offered. Who besides the author can believe that the 

 shape of the earth, deprived of its oceans, would be a 

 tetrahedron, the four angles representing the four conti- 

 nents ? Yet the author announces himself as following 

 in the footsteps of Elie de Beaumont in his theory of the 

 reseau pentagonal, as the following lucid sentence on 

 page 2 shows : — " The form (of the earth) is included in 

 his reseau trinngtilaire, and is, as I propose to show, the 

 six-faced tetrahedron ; the easterly sag or twist of the 

 southern hemisphere on a twin plane, the apparently 

 macled form of the crystal, having caused the lines of 

 relief and depression of the earth's surface to elude solu- 

 tion whilst the reseau of that crystal in its simple form 

 alone was applied to them." We quite agree with the author 

 that " only the imperfection of the ideas or of the lan- 

 guage in which they are conveyed can prevent the follow- 

 ing pages being intelligible to every reader." However 

 untenable De Beaumont's theory was, it was conscien- 

 tiously and laboriously worked out, and the conclusions 

 were commensurate with the offered proof, even if they 

 were erroneous ; but Mr. Green, who would be his fol- 

 lower and improver, jumps to conclusions far wider on 

 the basis of supposition only. The present short volume 

 is only the first part of three that are promised on the 

 figure of the earth, volcanic action, and physiography ; 

 and we must hope that the second part, at least, which is 

 to contain " observations of the great active volcanoes and 

 the great extinct volcanic range of the Hawaiian group," 

 which the author must have had good opportunities of 

 making, will be somewhat more solid than this first. Mr. 

 Green is plainly capable of better things than wild specu- 

 lation, which anyone can make and no one can prove. 

 There are no doubt many remarkable features in the dis- 

 tribution and shape of land and the direction of its coast 

 lines, some of which are here pointed out ; but the mean- 

 ing of these things will only be arrived at by a wider 

 knowledge of facts and sober induction from them. The 

 large map that accompanies the volume shows some of 

 these features well, and is beautifully executed. 



Stanford's Elemental y Atlases. I. Physical Atlas {sixth 

 edition) J II. Outline Atlas; III. Projection Atlas j 

 IV. Blank Sheets for Maps. By the Rev. J. P. 

 Faunthorpe, M.A., F.R.G.S. (London : Edward 

 Stanford, 1875.) 

 This is really an admirable apparatus, not merely for the 

 purpose of teaching the construction of maps, but for the 

 giving of a real knowledge of what Physical Geography 

 means, and for the conveyance of an impressive idea of 

 the prominer t physical features of the particular countries 

 embraced in the set of maps. There are sixteen maps alto- 

 gether, and in the Physical Atlas the chief physical features 

 of the various countries are clearly brought out — mountain 

 ranges, table-lands, and river-courses. The mountain 

 ranges are simply but sufficiently indicated by thick lines, 

 the principal summits being shown by small circles ; the 

 table-lands arc shown by simple shading. Besides these 

 features, each map contains one or more of the principal 

 cross-sections of the country, which convey a vivid idea 

 of its conformation. Prefixed to the Physical Atlas are 

 a few useful hints on Map-drawing, on Mercator's Projec- 

 tion, on the Shape and Position of the Land Masses, and 

 a few notes illustrating each map. Atlases II., III., and 



IV. are intended to lead the student gradually to skill in 

 map-drawing, and are well calculated to serve the pur- 

 pose. Anyone who goes faithfully through the course 

 indicated by this excellent set of books will have a more 

 real knowledge of the main features of the land-masses 

 of the globe than any amount of mere reading can give. 

 The fact that the Physical Atlas has reached a sixth 

 edition, which contains several new maps and additional 

 letterpress, proves that Mr. Faunthorpe's design has 

 been appreciated. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 



{The Editor does not hold himself responsible jar opinions expressed 

 by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to return, 

 or to correspond with the -writers of, rejected manuscripts. 

 No notice is taken of anonymous communications.'] 



The Meteors of November 14 

 The writer some time since called attention to the fact that 

 the dates of certain meteoric showers, given by Humboldt and 

 Quetelet as belonging to the November stream, indicated the 

 existence of two distinct and widely separated clusters moving in 

 orbits very nearly identical. The years thus designated were 

 1787, 1818, 1820, 1822, 1823, 1 841, and 1846. As the last two 

 were subsequent to the great display of 1833, the meteors seen 

 were noticed only in consequence of their being specially looked 

 for ; and as the number conformable to the radiant of the Leonids 

 is not given, there may be some doubt whether those observed 

 really belonged to the November stream. The former displays 

 occurred before the periodicity of such phenomena had been 

 suspected, and the number of meteors would seem to have been 

 considerable. As the shower of 1787 preceded by twelve yeais 

 the great meteoric fall witnessed in South America by Humboh t, 

 the group from which it was derived had passed beyond tl^e 

 orbit of Saturn at the time of the latter display. The phenomtiia 

 of 1818, 1820, 1822, and 1823 indicate that, as in the case cf tl e 

 major group, which passed its descending node between 1865 

 and 1870, the meteoroids are extended over a considerable arc 

 of their orbit. From November 1787 to the middle of the nodal 

 passage of 1818-1823, is about 33^ years — a period nearly the 

 same as that of the principal cluster. These facts alone were 

 regarded by the present writer as giving reasonable probability 

 to the hypothesis of an approximate identity of orbits. In 

 Nature, vol. xi. p. 407, it was shown that the meteor-showers 

 of October 855 and 856 were probably derived from the stream 

 of Leonids, and it is certainly remarkable that the interval from 

 855 to 1787 is equal to twenty-eight periods of 33^293 years. 

 Again, the shower observed in Chma, Sept. 28, A.D. 288, making 

 proper allowance for the nodal motion, corresponds to the same 

 epoch ; the interval between 288 and 855 containing seventeen 

 periods of 33 "35 years. In view of the fact that the shower from 

 this cluster was due between 1851 and 1855, the folloving extract 

 from the writer's note-book is not without interest : — 



"Newark, Delaware, Nov. 13, 1852. ... On the evening 

 of the nth, from 7 to 10 o'clock, an aurora borealis of ordinary 

 brilliancy was constantly observed. About midnight the sky 

 became overcast with clouds, thus preventing our watch for 

 meteors which we were about to commence. On the I2th, from 

 about 3 to 9 o'clock A.M., rain fell almost incessantly. About 

 noon the clouds broke away, and the night between the 12th and 

 13th was quite clear. During six hours — from 10 r.M. to 4 a.m. 

 — constant watch was maintained at four windows, facing north, 

 south, east, and west. From 10 to i o'clock the observations 

 were conducted by Prof. Ferris and myself with assistants. At 

 I the place of Prof. Ferris was taken by Prof. Porter, who 

 remained, with myself and assistants, till 4. We observed — 



From I oh. to iih. 20 meteors. 



,. II ,, 12 35 „ 



,, 12 ,, I 40 ,, 



,, I ,, 2 52 ,, 



2 „ 3 75 „ 



3 >. 4 59 M 



Total 281 



When the meteors were most numerous, near 3 o'clock, the 

 common point of divergence in Leo was distinctly observed." 



I may here add, although the fact is not stated in my memo- 

 randa, that the conforn*ble meteors, or a majority of them, 



